In An Instant Rewrite
by Pickles Nickels
Summary: After two young girls are kidnapped, a third girl unknowingly holds the haunting secret that will lead the detectives of the 1-6 into a case that goes deeper than any of them ever imagined. Just how far is too far to go to solve a case?


A/N- For anyone who remembers my story "In An Instant", I've officially decided that I absolutely hate it. There are many reasons why. My characterization is crap, some of my plot lines don't make any sense, I rushed the Elliot/Olivia relationship…it could go on and on. Therefore I am rewriting it, for I have been bitten by the fic bug once again and need to do some creative writing exercises in my spare time before college drives me crazy. I am going to leave the original up for the time being, but just note that it is my story and** I am not plagiarizing from anyone else** (I just changed my name since I wrote the original)

I'd also like to include a note that this is going to be AU in the sense that Kathy and the kids simply do not exist. I'm a huge E/O fan, but also a nut for proper characterization and I just don't see Elliot and Olivia working out if they're in the picture. So if you're wondering where the fresh hell Kathy and the kids are, they're not here.

The playground was full of youthful voices screaming at the top of their lungs, as what appeared to be almost every child in the neighborhood played in the warm afternoon sun. Parents and caretakers too were enjoying the nice weather, sitting on benches and observing their children from a distance as they socialized and shared bottles of water and healthy snacks.

"Can't catch me, Cadie!" One little blonde girl shrieked happily, sprinting away from a laughing brunette teenager.

"Oh yeah, Tonya? I'm bigger than you!" She teased, though purposely allowing the younger girl to sprint ahead towards the playscape. "No sprinklers, Tonya, I told you!" She warned as the girl ran dangerously close to the sprinklers that had been turned on to accommodate for the hot early autumn day. Unlike the bathing suit clad toddlers frolicking in the sprays of cool water, Tonya and Cadence were both neatly dressed in school uniforms, hardly the attire to return home dripping wet in. "I'm gonna get you, Tonya!" She said as she gained on the little girl. Tonya put on a sudden burst of speed as she reached the playscape, knowing she was about to win the game as the structure was not designed for a fifteen year old girl to chase her eight year old sister on with ease.

"I win!" Tonya shrieked happily as she scrambled up the ladder for the slide. "Let's go again, Cadie!"

"Sorry, Tonya, we have to go. I have to do my homework." Tonya leaned over the railing, pouting at her sister. "If it's nice again tomorrow, we'll come back, okay?"

"Why can't you just do it here?" Cadence sighed. Though the park was full of the hawk-sharp eyes of parents and babysitters, she felt uneasy letting her little sister out of her sight, just in case anything were to happen.

"Sorry, Tonya, we'll come back tomorrow, okay?"

"Fine." The little girl said dejectedly, heading for the slide for one last burst of joy before going back to boring home, where she would have to wait for Cadence to finish her big girl homework before getting to play again.

"Cadence!" A voice called from across the playground.

"Hi !" She called back, heading over to greet the mother of one of Tonya's friends, Michelle, with the little girl clinging to her hand.

"Not leaving so soon, I hope? It's such a nice day for the kids to be out here playing."

"Yeah, I have to do my homework and didn't want to leave Tonya alone."

"Oh, well do you have your books with you?" Cadence nodded, patting the messenger bag she had slung around her torso. "Well, we just got here and I have no problem watching Tonya for you. Why don't you sit next to me and do your homework while the kids play? It's too nice a day for you to be cooped up inside either."

"Thanks, !" Cadence grinned, letting an ecstatic Tonya go to play with her friend. "It's really nice of you to watch her for me."

"It's no trouble, really. It's just as easy to watch two girls as it is to watch one. It's a shame your mother wasn't able to take Tonya today. Is she still working?" Cadence nodded, smiling a closed-lipped smile. _Don't let her see anything is wrong. Don't let her suspect._ Cadence repeated to herself, a mantra she had to keep up around friendly faces like lest they discover that all was not right with her family. "That's too bad." _Good, she fell for it. You're a great actress, Cadence Smith, _she praised herself. Cadence opened her messenger bag, pulling out a French workbook and a pen. "I'll leave you to your work now, sweetheart." Cadence responded with a smile.

Distracted by her work, and earlier by the chase game she had played with Tonya, Cadence never once noticed the man who had been watching her and her sister nearly the whole time they had been in the playground. He sat alone on a bench near the playscape, his gaze hidden by mirrored sunglasses. He seemed to emit an unsavory air, keeping parents at a cautioned distance and children away. He had done nothing to warrant any action against him, yet he was still being watched in short, nervous glances by those who had noticed him.

Like Cadence, had not noticed the man either, for the bench he was on was out of their field of view, though if she had, she would have noticed his head turning in the direction of Michelle and Tonya every time the pair would dart in a different direction, giggling as they continued the game Cadence had ceased playing. "Cadence, you want a snack?" The girl looked up from her work for a second.

"Sure." She glanced over at her sister. "Away from the sprinklers, Tonya Smith!" She warned once again as the girl had gotten too close once again. She bent her head back to her work as broke her gaze at the two young girls playing to rummage through her purse for the granola bars she had packed earlier.

It was in that moment that he chose to strike. In running away from the sprinklers, Tonya turned in the direction of the man, Michelle close behind. Neither nor Cadence noticed him rise and approach them until a small girl's scream of terror pierced the air. 's head snapped up to see him holding Tonya around the waist and Michelle grabbing onto Tonya's hands.

"Tonya!" She yelled. Cadence recognized the panic in her voice and immediately dropped everything, following the older woman as she sprinted across the playground. "Let go of her, you son of a bitch!"

A loud crack sounded and fell to the ground, blood pooling around her fallen body. In his right hand, the man held a gun, which he quickly tucked into his waistband as panic flooded the rest of the playground. Snatching up Michelle, he seized the opportunity to escape in the ensuing panic of violence on the playground.

"Get off of my sister!" Cadence screamed, grabbing onto Tonya and helplessly trying to pull her from his grasp.

"Kid, get the hell off me, or you'll be next." He jerked away, knocking Cadence to the ground and making his getaway to a car parked just outside the gate. She forced herself up and out of the park, grabbing onto the door handle of the car in an unsuccessful attempt to free the terrified girls in the back seat. The man was quicker than Cadence, starting the car and squealing off with her still holding on to the handle, her body dragging along the concrete for nearly a block before her fingers slipped and she hit the street hard, staying conscious for barely a second before the world around her faded to black and she slipped into unconsciousness.

It had not taken twenty minutes for local precinct cops, EMTs and two detectives from Manhattan SVU to show up at the scene. Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson rolled in just after Jordan Callway, shot and in critical condition, was rolled off to Bellevue's ER and before Cadence Smith was to be transported to the same place.

"You guys SVU?" A uniformed cop asked as the two detectives ducked under the yellow tape cordoning off the crime scene.

"You got it, I'm detective Stabler, this is my partner detective Benson. What happened?"

"Two eight year old girls were snatched by an unidentified male perp. Jordan Callaway, mom of one of the girls tried to stop him, he shot her in the stomach, EMS is taking her to Bellevue right now. The older sister of the other girl put up one hell of a fight after he shot the mom. Witness saw him throw her to the ground, she got up, chased him to the getaway car, grabbed onto the handle and he drove off. Dragged the girl about a block before she was thrown off and knocked unconscious."

"She still here?" Elliot asked.

"Right over there. Gotta warn you though, she's resisting medical attention." Elliot shot a look at Olivia who raised her eyebrows.

"You interview the girl, I go get the other witnesses statements?" Olivia nodded and they split, Elliot going towards the groups being interviewed by uniformed officers and detectives from the local precinct and Olivia heading over to the girl sitting on the curb beside an ambulance and a pair of EMTs standing over her.

"No, I have to find my sister!" The girl protested as the male EMT leaned forward in an attempt to swab a scrape on her face.

"Excuse me, mind if we speak with her?" Olivia laid a hand on his shoulder, showing him her badge. He shrugged and nodded, stepping aside to allow Olivia to kneel in front of Cadence. "Hi sweetheart, my name's Olivia, I'm a detective. I'm here to help you. Can you answer a few questions for me?" She nodded. "What's your name, honey?"

"Cadence Smith."

"How old are you, Cadence?"

"Fifteen." She sniffled. "My sister's eight, her name is Tonya."

"We're going to do everything we can to find her, okay Cadence?" She looked up at Olivia and nodded. "Can you take us through what happened?" She nodded.

"Tonya and I came to the park right after school. She gets out at 3 and it was so nice out I thought I'd take her here instead of going home first."

"Did you notice anybody following you here, or watching you or Tonya?" Olivia asked. Cadence tearfully shook her head.

"I was too busy playing with Tonya. I didn't see anyone. We were about to go home so I could do my homework when came and said she'd watch Tonya so I could do my homework here. I heard a scream and next thing I know this guy has Tonya. I tried to stop him, I really did." She looked up at Olivia, her eyes full of tears.

"Sweetheart, this isn't your fault." Olivia stroked her arm reassuringly.

"It is. I should've paid more attention. Maybe I'd have known something wasn't right, or seen something or…" She trailed off, overcome by sobs. Olivia pulled her into an embrace, allowing the girl to sob into her shoulder.

"We are going to do everything we can to find her, okay sweetheart?" She felt Cadence nod against her shoulder, and then the girl pulled away. "Did he seem familiar to you? Maybe someone you know?" She shook her head. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

"A little. He had brown hair and sunglasses on…a moustache. I think he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I don't remember anything else."

"That's okay sweetheart, you're doing fine." Olivia reassured her. "Cadence, the officer said he drove away with the girls and you were holding onto the car. That's how you got hurt, right?" Cadence nodded. "Do you remember what kind of car it was?"

"It was black and small. That's all I remember. I just wanted my sister back."

"You did great, sweetheart. Why don't you let the EMTs have a look at you to make sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. I just want to go home."

"Cadence, you were dragged by a car. You need to have someone check you out, honey." Cadence shook her head. "Punishing yourself isn't going to help Tonya. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to be hurt and not get any help." Cadence looked into Olivia's caring gaze for a few seconds before nodding.

"Okay." Olivia gave her one last reassuring pat on the arm before standing and waving the EMTs over to check her out. She headed over towards Elliot.

"You get anything, El?" He flipped his notebook shut.

"Uniforms say most of the parents fled with the kids after the shooting, except the few who stayed here to help or couldn't leave before they came around to collect statements. The ones I talked to didn't see anything until he grabbed the kids, or shot Jordan Callaway, depending. The sister give you anything?"

"She gave me a description of the man, but not much else. Poor girl's traumatized."

"I can only imagine. Watching your little sister be carted off isn't exactly easy."

"Damn straight."

"Detectives!" A frantic voice behind them yelled. They turned in the direction of the sound, seeing the female EMT who had been treating Cadence running towards them. "The Smith girl is gone."

"What do you mean she's gone?" Olivia's eyes widened.

"We left her alone for two seconds to grab something from the rig and next thing we know she disappeared."

"Did you see anyone?" The EMT shook her head. Olivia and Elliot exchanged a glance, signalling them to head for their car. "Thank you!" She called to the EMT.

"Think our perp came back for round two?" Elliot said, as he opened the driver's side door.

"Doubt he's dumb enough to return to the scene of the crime when it's swarming with cops. My guess is she ran away when she saw the chance." Elliot raised his eyebrows, starting up the car.

"The kid was dragged by a car, why would she do that?"

"She was pretty adamant about not getting medical treatment, El. Either she's convinced that she's going to lose her sister, or I hate to say it, but maybe there's something else going on."

"Abuse?" Olivia nodded. "I've got the home address here, let's start off by checking out the parents." With that he drove off in the direction of the address he had gotten from the uniformed cops, the haunting thoughts of where the now three missing girls were now filling their heads.


End file.
